Door-check



1. F. o'CoNNoR.

DOOR CHECK.

APPLICATION FILED JULY2I. l9-l9.`

muted ont 19,1920.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JoHN r. ocoNNoH, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOH roWILLIm H.y Himsa or cHAzY, NEW YORK.

To all 'whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, JOHN F. OCoNNoR, a citizen of the United States, residing 'at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Door-Checks, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

This invention relatesto improvements in door checks.

In the operation of railway, baggage and mail cars, numerous accidents have occurred heretofore due to the sudden slamming of the slidable side doors to closed position Y when the baggagemen or mail clerks are standing in the doorways, such sudden movements of the doors being occasioned by changes in the speed of the cars. For a long time, the railroads have been desirous of obtaining a simple and efficient device for preventing such accidents but hitherto without entire success.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple, relatively inexpensive arrangement suitable for application to baggage and mail cars and other structures wherein horizon tally slidable doors are subject to sudden changes of momentum which arrangement will effectively prevent or check the doors from moving suddenly to closed position.

Another object of the invention is to provide an arrangement of the type indicated in the pre^eding paragraph which will act automatically and which will be dependent entirely upon changes of speed or momentum.

The invention furthermore consists in the improvement of the parts and devices and in the novel combination of the parts and devices herein sliown. described and made the subject matter of the claims.

In the drawings forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is an interior elevational view of a portion of a baggage or mail car showing the usual side door thereof and illustrating my improvements in con-V nection therewith. In this view the floor is shown in section. Fig.2 is an enlarged vertical detail sectional view taken substan-v tially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1. And Fig. 3 is an enlarged elevational view illustrating one of the door hangers and associated parts.

`section indicated at 24.

speeincmon of teammat- Patented oct. 19, 1920 Appiieation fueayiuiy 21,1919. ser'iaijNo. 312,132. l y y n 'i l In said drawing, 10 denotes the floor of a car, 1.1 the side wall thereof, the latter being provided with the usual side door opening defined by the lintel 12, door posts 13 and 14 and threshold 15. Theusual form of horizontally slidable side door is indicated at 16, and, as customary, is'provided with a'handle 17 for moving the same back and forth.

In carrying out my invention, I provide an upper horizontal door-supporting track indicated at; 18, the same being preferably in the form of a plate or bai` spaced from the face of the wall and mounted on a spac` ing strip or block 19. ,c

'Io support the door and permit its horizontal movements back and forth, I provide two hangers indicated generally by the reference A. Each of said hangers Acomprises a verticalr bracket 20 having an inverted U-shaped upper end withiny which is ing .supported on a suitable axle or pin 22 carried by the bracket. At its lower end, the bracket 2O is preferably provided with a shortkhorizontally extending section 23 and below that with a' depending vertical The latterA is rounded at its ylower edge as indicated at 25 and .moves within a flaringisocket y26 formed in the upper portion of the doorf16.

vSaid section 24 of the bracket is pivotally mounted on a pin 27 carried by the door, said pin at its outer end being preferably seated in a plate 28 and the pin held from accidental disengagement by anyV suitable meanssuch as the cotter 29. With the arrangement just described, it is evident that the door, in addition to its usual horizontalV movement, is adapted to swing in the manner of a pendulum with respect to the rollers and track. Normally, of course. the door will hang in its lowermost position but upon sudden change of speed or momentum, the door will swing upwardly about the rollers and track as fulcrum points and consequently the upper edge of the door will thereby be elevated.

To check sudden movements of the door toward closed position` I provide on the under side of the block or strip 19 a rack 30 and on the upper edge of the door I provide a coperating rack formed on a plate 31. The teeth of said racks 30 and 31 are arranged as shown in Fig. 3, z'. e., so that said teeth will engage and lock when the door moves toward the left or toward closed position. In normal position of the parts there is left just sufficient space between the tops of the teeth oi the two racks so that the teeth will clear each other and movements of the door will be unhampered at any normal slow speed. IIowever, upon swinging of the doorl upwardly in the manner just described, it is evident that the teeth of the rack 3l will interlock with the teeth of the ack 30 and thereby positively stop or check the door from continued movement until its speed has decreased sutliciently for the teeth to disengage by the door swinging backwardly. It will be noted that the teeth are so arranged that movement of the door tothe right will not be positively checked although it will be rictionally dampened in its movement by the teeth sliding over each other in the event the door swings upwardly from its lowermost position.

I have shown two racks for positively checking movement of the door toward closed position but it is evident that the teeth are not absolutely essential since 1 might employ a mere friction engagement although the same would not be as positive in its action. I prefer the rack teeth since these are absolutely positive.

I claim:

l. In a device of the character described, the combination with a member having a door opening therein and a horizontally slidable door associated therewith, of a supporting track disposed along the top of the door, roller door supporting brackets sustained from said track, said brackets being pivotally attached to the door whereby the door and brackets are adapted to swing relatively to the rollers and track, and a fixed abutting edge located above and normally slightly spaced from the upper edge of the door with which the latter is adapted to engage when the door swings with respect te itsl support.

2. In a device of the character described, the combination with a member having a door opening therein and provided with` a door supporting track and a -iXed ledge, oit a door, and means for suspending said door from said track arranged to permit horizontal sliding of the door and also swinging movement thereof relatively to the track, said door having means coperable with said liXed ledge and adapted to engage the latter and check the speed of the door when the door swings relatively to the track.

3. In a device of the character described, the combination with a member having a door opening therein and provided with a door supporting track and a ixed ledge` of a door, and means for suspending said door from said track arranged to permit horizontal sliding of the door and also swinging movement thereof relatively to the track, said door having means coperable with said fixed ledge and adapted to engage the latter and check the speed of the door when the door swings relatively to the track, said ledgeand means on the door having cooperating rack teeth.

In witness that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto subscribed my name this 14th day of July, 1919.

JOHN F. OCONNOR. 

